The next major release of VMware Tools – the collection of in-guest drivers and agents that optimize VM performance and increase manageability – will be delivered with VMware vSphere 6.5, and is also downloadable as of today from My VMware. Bundling of Tools for most popular guests only As usual, this version of VMware Tools is compatible with previous vSphere releases, and several enhancements improve the overall manageability experience when used in conjunction with vSphere 6.5. From Download VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) page, select your ESXi version that you want to download from Select Version drop down menu. VMware ESXi 6.5 includes VMware Tools for the most commonly used guest operating systems Tools for other guests are available for download from My VMware. Bifurcation of Tools for legacy and current guests Similarly, Tools updates for those same bundled guests will be distributed through Update Manager, as they have been in the past, via the tools-light VIB. This release of VMware Tools is comprised of two separate delivery vehicles. VMware Tools 10.1 will be available for OEM-supported guest operating systems only.
Legacy guests that have fallen out of support by their respective vendors will be covered by “frozen” VMware Tools 10.0.12.
